Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

#Google has put a big emphasis on #security, and has done a good job of building secure systems at the OS level (#Android, #ChromeOS). The question here is why? They have to because they are built on gathering everyone's private data and metadata, and building profiles on everyone. They have monopoly power, so people have to accept their security changes even when it removes valuable features. The clearest example is how badly Debian is integrated on ChromeOS. #ARCVM is the next iteration.

#Signal is a great app, and one of the key leaders bringing private messaging to us all, please don't ruin #Signal with #cryptocurrency https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-cryptocurrency-payments/

@duckduckgo I think there is only one way to improve things if you have an Alexa: get rid of it and scrap it. Support privacy respecting, free software personal assistants instead. Mycroft for example https://opensource.com/article/20/6/open-source-voice-assistant

The #Debian #Android Tools Team now has a blog, including news about packaging #Gradle #Kotlin sdkmanager and related #FreeSoftware issues https://android-tools-team.pages.debian.net/blog/

yet again, the path to hacking into a phone is sending crafted images via a messaging app https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html

#SurveillanceCapitalism is harmful, that doesn't mean privacy-respecting advertising is a beneficial. The whole point of advertising is to distract the target audience and to change how they are thinking. This is sold to the highest bidder, and is mostly not in the recipient's interest. Important services like journalism are funded this way. We don't have to put up with this anymore, direct funding has real promise, for example: OpenCollective, Brave Browser, Patreon, WNYC, ProPublica, Liberapay

World's richest 1% (more than $100k/year) have 2x climate impact of the bottom 50%. The richest 10% (more than $35k/year) make 52% of the climate impact. I'm amazed at how little Europeans and Americans have done even when they believe #ClimateCrisis
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/21/worlds-richest-1-cause-double-co2-emissions-of-poorest-50-says-oxfam

#Google likes to claim that they pay the taxes that they owe according to the law. Then why did they just agree to pay 218 million Euros in back taxes? That's hardly little "oops".
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/25/google-to-pay-183m-in-back-taxes-to-irish-government

Yet another of the many ways that #Cloudflare breaks the open #internet: connecting without a User Agent gives 403 Forbidden with an obscure "error code 1010". My #TLS #ECH test suite works fine on all the other sites, only Cloudflare does this.

To avoid burnout, I've been looking for sources of good news. My most recent one is dam removal. Around the world, dams are being removed and rivers are coming back to live. There is still much work to be done, but things seem to be trending in the right direction.

https://riverwatch.eu/de/dedamming/karte

https://yewtu.be/search?q=dam+removal

Someone should really dig into #pharma PR against the #Oxford/#AstraZeneca vaccine. The science clearly shows it is a safe and effective vaccine. Sure, there were some hiccups in the process. #BigPharma really does not want the Oxford model to succeed because they were going against #patents and working on non-profit manufacturing. #BigPharma already spends the same if not more on marketing than research.

* https://www.politico.eu/article/how-astrazeneca-threw-away-its-shot/
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-pharmaceutical-companies-are-spending-far-more-on-marketing-than-research/

Huh, I just got banned from all GrapheneOS rooms. I haven't posted in months...

I find it super frustrating how well constructed #Google #privacy PR is. They are masters of taking one little problem, making an a solid privacy improvement to it, then using it to distract people from their giant surveillance capitalism machine. Something like that is only a privacy improvement for people who are fully in Google's ecosystem. Switching to using Google Fi encrypted calling would be a net privacy loss.